Cristaldi matches career goal mark in Clarkson women's lacrosse record victory over CMS

Friday, March 22, 2013 - 7:45 am

West Palm Beach, FL - Senior Alyssa Cristaldi (North Syracuse, NY) scored a pair of goals to match the all-time mark for the Clarkson University Women's Lacrosse team as the Golden Knights improved to a program-best 5-0 to start the season with an 11-6 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Thursday evening.

With their fifth victory to start the season, the Golden Knights surpassed the previous mark of four wins to begin a campaign in 2010, and Clarkson will take its winning streak into Liberty League play against Skidmore College on Friday, March 29th. CMS fell to 5-6 on the season.

Though CMS scored the game's first goal in the opening minute, Clarkson owned the first half by scoring seven of the next eight goals. The Knights were efficient on offense, scoring their seven goals on just 10 total shots. CMS scored the first goal of the second half as well, but once again Clarkson pushed forward on offense with three straight goals to put an end to any hopes of a CMS comeback.

Freshman Christine Wright (Watertown, NY) led the team offensively, scoring four goals and adding an assist in the game, while senior Katie VanDeValk (Baldwinsville, NY) added three goals. Cristaldi scored a pair as well, pushing her season total to 15 goals to tie the program mark of 144 career goals. Senior Jeannette Pendergast (Greenfield Center, NY) scored her first goal of the season, and sophomore Abby Doyle (Syracuse, NY) rounded out the goal scoring for the Knights.

Clarkson continued to impress on defense as well, with junior goalie Kara DiNatale (Auburn, NH) making three saves. Overall, the Knights allowed just 13 total shots, with only nine of those attempts going on the Clarkson cage, and eight groundballs.